Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’

There really is nothing like picking vegetables from the backyard garden, preparing them simply and roasting them over flame. Yesterday, we harvested the first what I’m sure will be many more zucchinis, and enough green beans for two servings (there’s lots more out there). A couple weeks ago, we also pulled a couple dozen onions of various types and set them to cure on wire shelves in the sunroom.

Red, yellow and white onions from the garden

There’s really not much to this recipe. I trimmed the zucchini and cut it lengthwise into four planks. I whisked together the juice of one lemon, the same amount of extra-virgin olive oil, a 1/2 tsp. of Penzey’s Minced Garlic, a pinch of cayenne, a big pinch of sugar, and salt and pepper for a quick marinade. I also sliced a small homegrown red onion and trimmed the green beans.

Dan sprinkled Paul Prudhomme’s Blackened Redfish Seasoning on two tuna steaks and took everything out to the grill. We have this handy grilling wok that makes it easy to grill small pieces of food like cut vegetables.

After everything was grilled, we tossed the vegetables with the rest of the marinade.

The first zucchini of 2011!

Garden-fresh green beans

Grilled veggies, grilled tuna and remoulade sauce

We got our order from TomatoGrowers.com a few days ago and today, Dan will start the seeds in the sunroom. It should be quite a crop, and we may even have some extra plants to share, even though we’re thinking about expanding the square garden.

After this cold, snowy winter, I can’t wait to get the garden going. Some of the lettuces we planted last fall are starting to come back with the warmer temperatures we’ve had this last week.

So here’s what we got:

Tomatoes

• Kimberly – early season, 1-2 oz. red fruit
• Margherita hybrid – mid-season, 5-6 oz. red paste tomatoes, great for pizza, pasta and roasting
• Oaxacan Jewel – late season, bicolor – yellow with ruby streaks, 6-16 oz.
• Purple Brandy – late season, deep pink-purple beefsteak, 8-16 oz.
• Rose de Berne – late season, Swiss heirloom, dark pink, 6-8 oz.
• Virginia Sweets – late season, heirloom, gold-red bicolor, at least 1 lb. each

Peppers and Tomatillos

• The Big Early Hybrid – bell peppers, 8″ long by 4.5″ wide
• Ancho 101 – used for Mexican stuffed peppers; can be dried and ground into chile powder
• Ixtapa Hybrid – 4-inch-long jalapenos
• Golden Greek Pepperoncini – great for pickling and in Greek salad
• Purple Tomatillos – We will probably have dozens of green tomatillo volunteers, so we thought we’d try the purple ones this year.

We’re also planting yellow and red onions, green beans and peas. Later we’ll add cucumbers and maybe some melons. We got one edible cantaloupe last year, so I’d like to try again and see how it goes. And I have some garlic cloves in the kitchen that started sprouting, so I need to get those in the ground, too.

When garlic starts sprouting in the kitchen, I separate the cloves and plant them in the garden. About a year later, I have a new head of garlic where once I had a clove that was past its prime.

This is my contribution to the weekly photo challenge at PhotoFriday.com.

The manure Dan tilled into the garden this spring has made a huge difference in our yield so far this year. We pulled a bunch of onions to make room for basil, and the bell peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are coming in nicely now.

Today I will be picking and preserving Anaheim peppers and making basil pesto for the freezer, as well as for us.

A basket full of yummies

Roma tomatoes

Anaheim peppers

We have quite a bit going in the garden right now – several kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, tomatillos, onions, garlic, cantaloupe (an experiment) and lots of herbs.

These are a few pix of food we harvested earlier in the spring – we now have a couple pounds of shelled and blanched peas in the freezer, along with at least five pounds of blanched green beans. And of course, all that salad!

Our first peas!

A couple pounds of beans

Bell pepper fell off – it was about 3 inches long, just enough for Dan’s salad

Back in, probably February, Dan planted mesclun mix seeds in a terra-cotta planter on the back steps. I had told him they would last all summer, but I neglected to specify that he should sprinkle a pinch of seeds each week for the summer. So he planted the whole seed packet all at once.

April 25

This is from last week, so it’s a little smaller now, but we definitely need to eat more of this. I also added a couple of parsley plants in there. It couldn’t be easier to grow – just sprinkle the seeds on and keep it watered.

May 15